“If I was a young physicist today, I would be very excited. We are close to a third revolution concerning our knowledge about the universe.” So said Nobel physicist Carlo Rubbia in Brussels, Belgium, at the late September rollout of a road map for European astroparticle physics. Rubbia mentioned Copernicus displacing Earth from the center of the universe and Charles Darwin’s theories on evolution, and added, “We will be focused on the fundamental question: What are we made of? Ninety-five percent of matter and energy in the universe is largely unknown to scientists. Astroparticle physics will help in unveiling these secrets.”
The Astroparticle European Research Area (ASPERA) road map was made with the involvement of 19 funding agencies in 14 countries and sets the strategy for the field over the next decade. Crowning the list of priorities are seven projects to study dark matter, cosmic rays, neutrinos, and gravitational...
